Russia accuses OSCE/ODIHR of double standards

PanARMENIAN.Net - The decision by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) not to send a monitoring mission to France’s April 22 presidential election is a regrettable example of double standards, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, March 21, RIA Novosti reported.

“Paris officially and in time invited the executive structure of the OSCE to monitor the election campaign,” the ministry said.

“The approach of sending monitoring groups to some member states and not to others at its own discretion causes perplexity,” it said.

The ministry said the organization’s statements that it does not send observers to countries which have no serious electoral problems “look unconvincing.”

“The Office sends full-format monitoring missions made up of hundreds of monitors to CIS states to track all stages of the election process,” it said. “But only limited ODIHR teams… work in the so-called ‘countries with developed democratic systems,’ or there is no monitoring at all.”

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won Russia’s March 4 presidential elections. The ODIHR, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) and PACE pointed to procedural violations and bias in favor of Putin. Their colleagues from former Soviet states said the vote was “transparent” and “fair.”